10 Shocking Movies That Will Scar You For Life
7. Martyrs
There's a suggestion in screenwriting that when you're writing your script you have to put your protagonist through hell. Martyrs took that as gospel, and pretty much put the lead character through some of the most unflinching punishment you've seen in a movie, ever.
In 2008, Pascal Laugier (The Tall Man) directed this piece of French horror cinema that lingers for far too long in the memory. The movie follows Anna and Lucie, both victims of child abuse, who seek revenge against those that caused Lucie so much pain and suffering when she was a child. Though what starts as a simple revenge movie with supernatural hints, evolves into something very unexpected. It twists and turns until an awfully protracted but incredibly effective sequences of torture that are the movies equivalent of blunt force trauma.
The movie is a high mark in the New French Extremity movement, and rightfully so. It's a great movie, but boy is it a hard watch that leaves you emotionally exhausted and haunted.